Dr. Amie Lajoie:

We agree. Something that again struck us as we were preparing for this meeting was the number of money advisers we spoke with who told us that people are not aware they can appeal decisions when they are initially rejected. We found some statistics from the Department of Social Protection on the number of initial applicants for disability allowance. The Department rejects more than half of first applicants; those are the statistics from 2021. Some 13,989 applications for disability allowance were turned down, while 13,298 of processed claims were granted last year. Many people are not aware they have the right to challenge or appeal those decisions. They will take that notice, or put that letter in the bin, forget about it and go back on jobseeker's, for example. Those numbers are also conflated so we might not get an accurate picture of the social welfare supports and who needs what.

In cases where decisions are appealed, for more than half there is a change in that decision. When people have access to an appeals system, they can get the supports. That is something our advisers flagged over and over; helping people to know and understand they have the right of appeal when a decision comes in. They might not get on the provisional allowance from the get-go, but they can appeal that decision and take it further. It is pretty significant they have to do that in the first place, but it is great they are coming to our services and we can provide that support.